Nathan Buckley Out To Repay Eddie With A Top 12 Finish

A resilient Nathan Buckley is staying strong in the wake of Collingwood’s drubbing at the hands of a rampant Giants outfit, vowing to repay the faith shown in him and return the club to its former glory in the top two thirds of the ladder.

“A top 12 finish is still within reach,” said the defiant Collingwood coach. “If we can get Wellsy on the park for a quarter here and there, and Mayney kicks 17 goals as a small forward for the year, I don’t see why we can mix it with the mediocre teams of the competition.”

Buckley’s future hung in the balance for much of 2017, until the club legend was offered a contract extension after impressing the board with his parallel parking abilities before training one evening. Now contracted until 2019, Buckley has just two seasons to arrest a form slide that saw Collingwood fall into the bottom six last year.